Having been doing the mom and volunteer thing almost exclusively for the previous twenty years, a head shot is not something that has seemed a worthwhile investment of time or money up to now. Is that a thing people have lying around?

But now, I needed a head shot. ASAP, please.

The need for a head shot at a moment’s notice seems emblematic of the level of preparedness I currently possess for the things that are happening around here.

In case you are not my FB or IRL (in real life) friend who has already heard my announcement, I recently signed a contract with Abingdon Press to publish my devotional book in February 2018! I KNOW, RIGHT??? In fact, considering you are a person who on occasion comes here to read my words, I feel bad for not having shared this news with you earlier since this would not be happening without you. This is no reflection of my love for you and I promise not to keep things from you in the future.

After 11 years of playing around with blogging, I gathered enough words, met with a couple of publishers, and now find myself with a grown-up book contract. And requests for head shots, marketing plans, video introductions, catchy quotables for memes and an author Q & A. To say that I feel a bit in over my head would be an understatement. Overwhelmed, but deeply grateful and extremely excited! God is good!

(The final manuscript is due on March 15, so I would appreciate your prayers for these next few weeks, praying friends.)

Along with the guidance I am getting from the lovely people at Abingdon Press, I also decided I need some professional help with my website. Along with writing projects and upcoming retreats, I recently started a life coaching practice that I want to tell people about here, so it is time for a major overhaul by someone who knows what they are doing.

So faithful friends, stay tuned! Things will be quiet around here for a bit, but I will be coming back with a brand new website soon. It will have buttons to click on, places to be on my mailing list and all manner of official writer, speaker, life coach things!

In the meantime, please enjoy my very grown up and professional looking head shot. This required a stylist to dress me, a hair and makeup professional to groom me, and a very patient photographer who works miracles with some kind of photo editing software. It takes a village!

It’s been ten weeks since election day and I desperately hoped something would have happened before Inauguration Day to reassure me.

Yeah, not so much.

Even before the talk of guns and grizzly bears surfaced in our halls of power, the constant stream of petulant, gloating, middle-school-worthy Tweets would have been enough. My millennial daughter with a degree in communications is perpetually flummoxed by the fact our President-Elect still seems to have unfettered access to his Twitter account. While I do love the word flummoxed, horrified is a more apt descriptor for my reaction.

So now what?

As a follower of Jesus, how do I reconcile my responsibility to pray for and respect our leaders on this Inauguration Day with the call to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with my God?

What part does the faith I claim to hold so dearly play in the ways I choose to react to this division in our country and the fears so many of us have about our future under this new administration?

Simply put, in light of our current circumstances, who is God calling me to BE and what is God calling me to DO?

Yesterday during my morning devotion, I read the familiar verse in Hebrews about living a life of faith:

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

As I pondered these familiar words, I dug deeper by reading the Amplified translation on my handy Bible Gateway app. There I found this powerful definition of the word faith:

Faith, which is an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God…

I sat with those words for quite a while and asked myself in the quiet of my own heart if I truly, honestly-with no one else looking- have an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God?

Ultimately, the answer is yes.

At my core, I am indeed a person who has an inherent trust and enduring confidence in the power, wisdom and goodness of God.

I believe God is still in control. I believe God still has the answers. I believe God still loves us completely.

God can. God knows. God cares.

BUT that is only the first verse of the 11th chapter of Hebrews. This chapter has 39 more verses.

The rest of the chapter calls us to remember the “faith in action” Hall of Fame.
One after another, BY FAITH, the heroes of our bible stories made Continue reading →

Even now as I sit at my keyboard, struggling to put my thoughts into words, I yearn for the Easy Button made famous by Staples ads. I am looking for a formula, a blueprint, or the ubiquitous “five easy steps to success.” I would prefer to be transported to my desired destination with minimal effort or struggle. However, every book on writing that I’ve read says the same thing about how to reach my goal:

Put your fanny in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard. Do the work.

If we want to be writers, we have to write. If we want to be dancers, we have to dance. If we want to be painters, singers, accountants or business owners, we must show up and do the work. If we want a stronger mind, body, and spirit, we must repeatedly choose the actions that nurture the growth we desire.

King David knew something about partnering with God. As he neared the end of his life, along with detailed plans for the temple Solomon was to build, he gave this advice to his son about the assignment God had given him:

“David also said to Solomon his son, ‘Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished’” (1 Chron. 28:20 NIV).

David knew God would be with Solomon every step of the way. He knew God would give Solomon everything he needed to complete the gargantuan task before him. Yet David also knew Solomon would need to be brave and DO THE WORK.

Our spiritual journeys are no different. When we allow God to work in our lives, he promises to make us more like Jesus and give us the fruits of his spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. However, we have to participate in that process by showing up and doing the work.

And what does our work look like?

For me, the work I need to do to participate with God in my own growth includes prayer, reading Scripture, practicing repentance and gratitude, worship, time with other believers, and serving people in need. Although these things we call spiritual disciplines do not by themselves produce life-altering changes in me, they put me in the optimum position for God to work his miracles. We are a team.

The gospel says we are redeemed and transformed, not by our own efforts, but by God’s willingness to pour out his lavish love and unmerited grace on us. He is crazy about us and wants to guide us toward becoming our best selves. While I am comforted by the notion of God working in me for my good and for use in his kingdom, I’m sometimes frustrated by his unwillingness to just wave a magic wand over me. Yet my good God is more concerned about my character than my comfort, and he knows hard work is good for me in all areas of my life.

Since I strapped it on my wrist, I have logged over 73,000 steps, primarily in my house. The most entertaining thing about the Fitbit so far has been the reaction of my elderly dog, Dobby. For those of you unfamiliar with a Fitbit, you can set up the watch-like receiver to notify you at the end of each hour when you have not achieved your hourly step minimum. What this looks like at my house is me jumping out of my chair once an hour and marching around in circles with my dog following behind me wondering where we are going.

Because he is 14 years old and I am young and spry, I often catch up to him as we round a corner. And then, because he is mostly deaf, I startle him. Occasionally, he takes a shortcut through the kitchen and takes the lead.

My husband and I find this endlessly amusing. Clearly, it is time for all of us to go back to work because Dobby is confused and exhausted.

In addition to using a Fitbit to get my butt moving, I am also jumping on another popular bandwagon this January. For the last couple of years, I have joined many of you in choosing one word to be my “theme” word for the year. One proponent of the One Word calls it the “un-resolution” and says:

Our resolutions seldom work because they are based on the type of person we’re tired of being rather than who God wants us to become. Plus, resolutions can be “broken,” leaving no room for the process of growth. What if our hopes for the year ahead centered instead on who God wants us to become, and the transformation process?

In 2016, my word was Brave: no surprise to those of you who read my blog regularly. Brave was my goal, my focus, the object of my passion and curiosity. Throughout the year, personally and professionally, I considered what it might mean to be brave and what, if anything, my faith in God had to do with it. In moments of choice, I viewed my options through the lense of the word Brave.

As I sit here today pondering the highs and lows of 2016 for me, my loved ones and our country, I am grateful for the presence of this online community in my life. This blog has continued to collect new readers from all over the world and I am grateful for every single one of your nearly 13,000 visits. Over 1,100 of you have agreed to an email notification when I post and 545 of you are part of our Facebook community. I am humbled you keep showing up and joining me here.

I published 57 posts this year and many of you were gracious enough to share your favorites with your friends. Because of your generosity and the way this community continues to gather new friends, I hope to have some extremely exciting news to share with you in the new year about an opportunity to share my writing more widely. Stay tuned!

As has been my tradition, I thought I would take a moment on this final day of 2016 to look back over some of our favorite “conversations” here at Grace Notes.

Top 5 Posts of 2016

1.How to Be a (Mostly) Awesome College Mom Just in time for my older daughter’s graduation from college this past May, I shared a few thoughts on the essential tools I believe all college parents need. Apparently, my somewhat irreverent observations resonated with a few of you, as this was my most widely read and shared post this year. This post was also my first picked up by Huffington Post and shared from that larger platform.

2. Our Journey Back: My Teenage Daughter’s Battle with Anxiety I am not the only writer in our family. My younger daughter, a brilliant and fearless writer (who I hope to be more like when I grow up,) began talking about her battle with anxiety in her writing this year. Because of her commitment to encourage others, she allowed me to tell our story here as well. Our journey back to health resonated with many of you and both Brooke and I have had the privilege of continuing the conversation offline with families who were comforted to discover they were not alone in their struggles. Continue reading →

We looked around the room, eyeing each other nervously, the twenty of us strangers at a weekend training course. Some of us attempted to make awkward conversation with the people on either side of us. We carefully broached the usual questions regarding where we lived, what we do, and the always safe topic of weather.

Our group leader called us to attention, then invited us to stand up, wander around the room, and introduce ourselves to one another by asking this question:

“What is your dream for your life?”

Moving from one person to the next, I stammered through my response the first few times but grew increasingly confident as I marveled at how many of us had similar dreams.

As I traveled around the room, I began adding depth to my response. I discovered kindred spirits and a receptive audience. As we all grew more comfortable, the energy and feeling of connection in the room was palpable. With the ice effectively broken, our leader laughed as he struggled to quiet us and move on to the next activity.

Talking about our dreams is not something most of us routinely do, in spite of our inherent desire to know and be known. Although we may hunger for it, true connection is often difficult in our busy everyday lives. We hurry past one another with a cursory how-do-you-do and an obligatory fine-thank-you as we move on to the next item on our to-do lists.

How often do we begin a conversation with a deep question? And if we do, how well do we listen to the response?

One way we can have conversations that really matter is by asking powerful questions. Asking open-ended questions lets the people in our lives know we are truly interested in who they are, what they think, and how they are feeling. Closed-ended questions, questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no response, shut down conversation and limit insight. Open-ended questions invite connection and sharing.

Thoughtful questions like the following communicate our desire to truly listen:

What did you like most about that experience?

What are you hoping will happen?

How did that make you feel?

If we are brave enough to ask better questions, we also must be willing to do the hard work of listening well to the answers. Good listening requires intentionality, patience, and practice. As a naturally loquacious person…